Double SC for all! (Book until midnight 6th Mar, Travel Mar 2017 - Feb 19, 2018)

[moa999]

Yep. Valid to 6 Mar 2018.
Thanks. Realised no double

 

[Kangol]

Forgot to mention some times ago that I had a voucher bought before the 2-6 March 2017 period, booking made and ticketed during the 2-6 March 2017 period and had DSC credit (after some *encouragement*). This is not dissimilar to other anecdotes.

Whether this also applies to the Feb 2018 promo is anyone's guess

 

[Pushka]

Forgot to mention some times ago that I had a voucher bought before the 2-6 March 2017 period, booking made and ticketed during the 2-6 March 2017 period and had DSC credit (after some *encouragement*). This is not dissimilar to other anecdotes.

Whether this also applies to the Feb 2018 promo is anyone's guess

Ya had to open another can of worms, didn’t cha!

 

[QF WP]

Well my final DSC’s from this 2017 promotion have posted so I can now put this thread to bed:



Now to turn my attention to the current DSC thread

 

[Brettmcg]

Looking for advice on how to get QF to acknowledge that a booking suffering from the well-known ZULU Time issue is actually eligible for DSC.

I've managed to do it in the past, but now they are kicking up a stink about a booking I made for my mother. The FF Service Centre staff on email are the most useless CSA I think I've ever come across. We eventually got one of the online chat agents to check and admit that the booking did qualify, but they then asked us to re-contact the FF Service Centre for advice. Now they are spinning the old line of "up to 6 weeks for crediting".

This is really pi**ing me off and I'm not entirely sure what to do. When I went to them about my booking late last year, it was somewhat of a hassle, but eventually we got there. This time it seems like they are just too stupid to understand.

Any tips would be most appreciated.

 

[serfty]

Any tips would be most appreciated.

WWW.AIRLINECUSTOMERADVOCATE.COM.AU

... but you'll need to wait the 6 weeks ...

 

[Brettmcg]

WWW.AIRLINECUSTOMERADVOCATE.COM.AU

... but you'll need to wait the 6 weeks ...

Thanks for that. Am also hoping for some anecdotal evidence and tips on getting it done, without having to do a full-on complaint.

 

[Matt_01]

I had 6 or so bookings last year that suffered this fate. I just waited 6-8 weeks after the flight then called the CC, explained that I booked early in morning and told the agent that the bookings were made in the eligible period, however the booking would most likely show up in their system as late in the evening on the day prior due to the Zulu time. I quoted the booking time based on the email confirmation and politely detailed that the Zulu system time was not my concern/issue. In all cases the SCs were posted manually with a week.

Also all my flights in question were actual flights that were booked and ticketed in the original 5 day promotional window, i.e. they were not changed flights or the other booking method that has been discussed ad nauseam.

I think the T’s and C’s for last years (this promo) is posted some early in thread somewhere between pages 10-20.

 

[mviy]

To make absolutely sure I avoid the time issue I generally wait till after midnight GMT on the 2nd day of the booking window. So if the booking window started on March 1, I'd wait till after midnight Mar 2 GMT before making bookings. Easy to forget to do this though. I would use the first day to think about what I might like to book.

A positive side effect of this issue is that bookings made just after the booking window closes may incorrectly be given DSC automatically.

QF imo should be able to improve their systems to handle the time differences. They should be able to get their computers to respect the time zone in the promo T&Cs but they haven't.

 

[Brettmcg]

To make absolutely sure I avoid the time issue I generally wait till after midnight GMT on the 2nd day of the booking window. So if the booking window started on March 1, I'd wait till after midnight Mar 2 GMT before making bookings. Easy to forget to do this though. I would use the first day to think about what I might like to book.

A positive side effect of this issue is that bookings made just after the booking window closes may incorrectly be given DSC automatically.

QF imo should be able to improve their systems to handle the time differences. They should be able to get their computers to respect the time zone in the promo T&Cs but they haven't.

That's great in hindsight, but I wasn't aware of this issue back in March 2017 when this booking was made. Had I have known, obviously I would have waited.

I have been mindful of it for this year's promo however.

 

[madrooster]

In past years they would wait until after 11am AEDT to send out the emails/put up the content on their website about the DSC promo. That alleviated this issue... however this year they forgot to do that.

 

[Matt_01]

Mivy, your second paragraph is another can of worms that best remains unopened. Para 3, as far as I am aware (not 100% sure) the booking platform is a third party platform with a QF skin so some core functionality may not be within QF controls. It makes sense for a universal platform to use a common time zone that is used by other carries across the globe.

 

[mviy]

The thing is how hard can it be to not just look at the date, but at the time of day as well when determining eligibility for the promo e.g. anywhere from 2pm GMT on one day to 2pm GMT on another day or whatever it is? It can't be that hard to make the check sophisticated enough to look for that.

 

[Matt_01]

Yes sounds like it should be simple but a lot of global platforms just work off a standardised, normally Zulu time (GMT) and adjust accordingly. Years ago you had to tell you computer your time zone on initial operating system install. These days it is automatic, it is the same reason that you mobile phone can adjust for time zones, this also once this was a manual task.

 

[oz_mark]

Yes sounds like it should be simple but a lot of global platforms just work off a standardised, normally Zulu time (GMT) and adjust accordingly. Years ago you had to tell you computer your time zone on initial operating system install. These days it is automatic, it is the same reason that you mobile phone can adjust for time zones, this also once this was a manual task.

GMT pfft. Try UTC

 

[Matt_01]

GMT pfft. Try UTC

I get they are the same (almost) I am just a GMT person and unlikely to change. I still refer to and understand time zones phonetically Zulu, India, Kilo etc, must have learnt this in another life.

 

[serfty]

Universal >> Greenwich ?

 

[Matt_01]

UTC - Coordinated Universal Time

 

[serfty]

UTC - Coordinated Universal Time

Sure ... love the way the Acronym used is an Anagram of the Abbreviation ...

... anyhoo this is getting OT.